Site Selection for Fish Farming

Having decided that you want to farm fish, one of the first steps to take is to search for a suitable site to base the infrastructure on.  The economic success of your venture will depend on choosing the right location, both for healthy fish and good markets.  The proposed site also affects the follow-on decisions including system design and species selection.  There are a host of factors that warrant careful consideration as you deliberate where to start looking and then narrow down your options.  First and foremost, you must identify the market: who will buy your fish, what species do they want, what form should it be in, what are the order quantities and how frequently will they order, and what price will you receive?  It is equally important that you determine where the fish are to be delivered and what accreditation standards will be required.
 
Based on the species and market-related considerations, you will know whereabouts the farm should, or could, be located.  If you are to utilise earth ponds or cages as your production infrastructure, then the temperature requirement of the fish species will dictate the climate that is suitable for farming them, and this in turn will determine where you are to look for land.  Remember that recirculating systems can be placed inside a temperature controlled greenhouse or building, making the external climate less of a factor.  Another species and location consideration relates to whether the species is indigenous to the area where you plan to farm it and/or how invasive the species is.  Recirculation systems offer good biosecurity control, including limiting the risk of fish escaping into the downstream environment to virtually zero.  By contrast, cages and earth ponds have a far lower biosecurity score, and fish species can only be farmed in these systems where they are already present in the wild to limit the risk of fish escaping and establishing populations that compromise the natural environment.
 
Water is one of the most important considerations that determine the suitability of a site for fish farming.  The quality of the water is paramount, and finding a site that has excellent water quality will reduce both capital cost and operational complexity, along with risk.  Ensure that the quantity of water available on the proposed site also meets the greatest need at the time of the lowest availability to be sure that you will never run out of water.  In reality, waste water from the fish can be collected, treated and reused, but this adds capital cost.  A final water-related consideration is that of entry elevation; by this I mean the height at which water enters the farm relative to the fish farming infrastructure.  Ideally water should arrive from a higher point so that it can be gravity fed into the reservoir from which it is gravity fed to the fish systems.  If this is not the case, and it seldom is, then allowance must be made for the water to be pumped to the reservoir.
 
The layout of the site involves several considerations that need to be thought through, such as the slope of the land and its aspect.  A south facing site is cooler (in the southern hemisphere) than a north facing site, which links back to the choice of species of fish to be farmed and their temperature requirements.  Steep sites need to be terraced to erect infrastructure, whereas flat sites only require clearing.  As with the quantity of water, you also need to ensure that the area of suitable land is large enough for the planned activity at the point of maximum expansion, including support infrastructure such as roads.  A final consideration concerning the land is to test that the soil profile suits that planned infrastructure type.  If you wish to erect ponds you will need deep soil with a high clay content, whereas a recirculating system can be designed to be constructed entirely above ground if required.
 
Management of effluent water needs to be given thought as well; the ideal use is in an aquaponics system whereby the waste water and fish wastes provide the nutrients to raise valuable vegetable crops, which in turn remove these wastes from the water enabling it to return, clean, in a continuous cycle to the fish.  Naturally this massively decreases the amount of new water required which is then limited to replacing evaporation, along with losses during the harvesting of fish and vegetables.  Alternatively, the waste water can be used to irrigate field crops, such as an orchard, thereby reducing environmental concerns to virtually zero.
 
Aquaculture can be carried out in an environmentally friendly manner, whereby fish are produced utilising few or no chemicals.  This enables the producer to market the products as pesticide-free, wholesome or naturally produced.  If this is your intention, be wary of what the crop farmers in the neighbourhood are spraying on their lands and in their greenhouses, as the wind can carry this onto your farm or into your water supply.
 
What is the quality of the road to the property and how does this compare with the type of vehicle that will deliver feed to you and take the fish to the market?  Consider the distance from both the feed source and market as well.
 
Also, because aquaculture is an intensive farming method, you will need staff on site 7 days a week, feeding and managing the fish systems.  Now consider were these staff will live and/or commute from.  Fish can be lost due to predation (otters, birds) or theft; consider the risk posed by each of these factors when considering the position of a new farm.
 
A final thought relates to infrastructure: are there buildings on site that could be used for storage, workshop, accommodation or perhaps even to house the fish infrastructure?  Having existing buildings on site can represent a huge saving relative to erecting infrastructure from scratch.
 
Having considered the potential site from all angles you will need to make your decision.  It is extremely unlikely that a site will be perfect on all accounts, and a level of compromise may be necessary.  The points above provide a helpful framework to guide your site considerations and I wish you all the best with this exciting adventure.